Today I have been trying to get the last few bits and pieces ready for workshops over the next couple of weeks. Within a restricted amount of workshop time, there is always the practical problem of how long things take to dry. It is funny how silly little practical problems like this can dictate what exactly can be achieved by the workshop participants. Ideally I would like them to be making every little decision – choosing every colour and doing every bit of the project production. But in reality, especially when working with young children, there is a certain amount of base work that needs to be done so that they can do the interesting bits on top.
Generally speaking this if fine with me. I can paint balloon pumps until the cows come home and I find this kind of ‘piece work’ a kind of meditation. It is nice to be able to listen to 6music without having to think too hard and just get the job done.
I love how all the various bits look, in green, in formation.
With the start date of the ‘making’ part of the project very close, I am now accumulating the last few materials for the workshops. My shopping list has included:
50 hand/balloon pumps
100 heavy duty cable ties
50 extra strong ‘ball bouncing’ type balloons
big bag of surplus/ seconds coloured tights
60m 9mm clear tubing
50 party blowers
50 cable shrouds
elastic bands
3 x coloured tubing
paint, glitter etc
100 jubilee clips
12 supporting branches (freshly cut)
50 plumbing parts
box of bell-like metal things
Feeling like a bizarre version of READY STEADY COOK I am tempted to challenge you – what could you make with all this?
(answers on a postcard please)
For any of you who have read my other blog ‘PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION’ this is the project that I have been working on for some time. It is the last part of my ACE supported project entitled ‘GrowYourOwn*BlowYourOwn’ (GYO*BYO). This has been ongoing for over a year and includes several pieces made by me following a period of research. After my 2010 project ‘Sound Circle’ I very much wanted again to work with a group of local children and to make another interactive outdoor installation which uses the lessons learned from Sound Circle.
Apart from a whole load of technical issues – of which I am now very used to dealing – my main concern with this part of the GYO*BYO project is that it has been up to now, un-named.
The name of a piece of work, idea or project has always been very important. It often occurs at exactly the same time as the idea behind everything and to not have a name for this has been troubling me greatly. When ‘strained fruit’ finally appeared I knew at once it was right.
Word play and usage has always been a bit of a tricky thing for me for although I hate them – I am rather fond of the odd pun. When I worked in television writing scripts for short VT inserts, this used to be the thing my lovely presenter hated most (though he always did them for me) and I remember vividly at college when a friend made a jokey title for a work featuring toy soldiers as ‘I’ve got the dippy egg’ our tutors told her in no uncertain terms not to make light of her own work but that you should always treat it with the utmost seriousness.
Whilst I agree with this sentiment – and believe me, I make serious work – I cannot help but feel that sometimes I just have to call a piece something which may just be judged just a little irreverent. Now I wonder why.
